What is recorded here

St. Patrick's Island in County Dublin was an early Christian monastery linked to the seventh-century saint Mochonna, whose shrine Vikings broke during a raid recorded in 798. Aerial photography now reveals a roughly circular enclosure around the church, confirming the island as a deliberate sacred place rather than a forgotten rock. The violent loss of that shrine and the later memory of an abbot named Maol Finniain suggest a small community that endured, adapted and remained worth remembering long after the initial foundation.

Early Christian monastery on Inis Phádraig associated with the 7th-century St. Mochonna (Dochonna, Mochonóg, Conna/Conan), venerated on the 13th of January. According to Ó Riain (2011, 463) the name was one of many 'pet forms of Colum, the name Mochonna is based on Conna (Coinne), which was otherwise represented among the saints by Conna, Dochonna, and Mochonóg or, with palatalization of the medial consonants, Coinne, Dochoinne, Mochoinne. As one would expect of a form derived from Colum - by far the most important holy name in early Christian Ireland - Mochonna was a popular appellation, with twenty-eight examples in the list of homonymous saints'. It has been suggested that the British saint 'Colmán Briot [of Gallen monastery, Co. Offaly] and Dochonna of St Patrick's Island were one and the same' (ibid. 464). Ó Riain (2011, 441) recorded the following details about Maol Finniain, possible 9th/10th century abbot of St Patrick's Island; 'The martyrologist, Maol Muire Ua Gormáin, brought his list of names for 6 February to an end with a couplet commemorating Finnian', whose name is glossed 'Maol Finniain, abbot of Inis Phádraig' There appears to be no other direct reference to this man, but the obit of Maol Finniain son of Flannagán, king of Breagha (now Meath with parts of Dublin and Louth), who died in 903, extols its subject as a 'religious layman'. This has led to the suggestion that the king and abbot may have been one and the same. The island is otherwise known for a raid on it in 798 by Vikings, who broke the shrine of Dochonna'. The Annals of Ulster recorded the 'Burning of Inis Patraice by Gentiles, and they carried off the preys of the district, and the Shrine of Dochonna was broken by them, and other great devastations (were committed) by them both in Ireland and Alba' (AU 797 AD). Recent aerial photography of St Patrick's Island (Inis Pádraig) shows traces of a roughly circular enclosure (DU005-019003-) around the church (DU005-019002-). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 13 March 2023

The site was founded in the 7th century by St. Mochonna, a local saint venerated on 13 January, and is associated with an early Christian monastery. It is dedicated to St. Patrick, reflecting the broader influence of his cult in early Irish Christianity, and represents a significant ecclesiastical center in the region during the Early Christian period.

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